The invention relates to environmentally compatible compositions which protect plants from fungal infection without exhibiting phytotoxic side effects.
Agricultural and horticultural plants are susceptible to infection by pathogenic fungi. Such fungi can severely damage or even kill the infected plants. Many commercially available anti-fungal compositions, like pesticides generally, are petrochemical-based products which are not naturally occurring compounds. As a result, these products do not readily breakdown in the environment, or they do not do so rapidly. While these petrochemical-based fungicides may be effective in preventing fungal infection of many plants, they also pose certain environmental risks, as well as potential health hazards.
Some naturally occurring compounds, such as the sodium and potassium salts of certain fatty acids, have been used as insecticides, herbicides and cryptocides (moss killers). However, the inherent phytotoxicity of these compounds does not render them useful in fungicidal compositions to be applied to living plants. Moreover, because these compounds can be rapidly decomposed by microorganisms, they must frequently be reapplied.
Accordingly, there is a need for an effective, environmentally safe fungicidal composition which is non-phytotoxic and which has residual activity.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide an effective, environmentally compatible fungicidal composition. A further object is to provide such a fungicidal composition which exhibits little or no phytotoxicity. Another object is to provide a fungicidal composition which has residual fungicidal effect on plants to which it is applied. Yet another object is to provide an effective and environmentally safe method of protecting plants from fungicidal infection. Other objects will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the disclosure which follows.